Yard Dawgz win on game's final play
Yard Dawgz win on game's final play

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By Justin Harper

Published: July 20, 2008

Granted, the former-coach-comes-back-as-opposing-quarterback story line seemed to be the obvious choice Saturday when Oklahoma City hosted rival Tulsa.

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That was until Fred Shaw blew that story out of the water.

Shaw caught a 32-yard pass on the last play of the arenafootball2 game to complete as improbable a comeback as one could ever hope to see as the Yard Dawgz stunned the Talons 58-57 in front of 8,500 fans at the Ford Center.

"That's what arena football is all about,” said Shaw, a former University of Central Oklahoma and Shawnee High standout. "That's what never giving up is all about.”

Oklahoma City scored three touchdowns in the final 2:40 and two TDs in the last four seconds of the game to pull off the miracle win. Shaw's Hail Mary grab from quarterback Evan Gray came on an untimed down with nothing but zeroes on the clock after a defensive penalty was called on Tulsa on what appeared to be the final play of the game.

"I've been involved in some great comebacks in arena football, but this one was so big for us,” said Oklahoma City coach Sparky McEwen. "We lost to this team by almost 40 when we played them earlier this year. And they're the defending (af2) champions. And they're our rival. Just the resiliency to fight for this was huge for us, our fans and the whole community.”

Making the rally from down 57-37 more implausible was the fact that Shaw has not scored a TD all season and had just three catches.

"They were taking me out of the game, and I said, ‘Coach, put me in there, throw me the ball and I'll go get it,” said Shaw. "I've had a couple of game-winning catches in high school, some in college, but never one like that.”

The comeback overshadowed the return of John Fitzgerald, who coached the Yard Dawgz last season. Fitzgerald, in his second game as Tulsa's quarterback, was 18 of 29 for 161 yards and four touchdowns. However, he was intercepted by Oklahoma City's Michael Tolbert with 2:40 left to play, and Tolbert took the pick back 39 yards for the touchdown that sparked the comeback.

The win puts Oklahoma City at 5-10, while Tulsa dropped its third straight game to fall to 11-4.

"This was unbelievable,” McEwen said. "There were some coaching mistakes by the other team, and we took advantage of it. I told our guys it would be a heavyweight fight, and we'd have to go all 15 rounds. We did that and a little more."

Related Topics: Sports, Football, Arena Football, Professional Football